Hi, this is Tom.

It’s been so gratifying to dig in again with movers and shakers and you on the issues and ideas that are lighting up our world - sometimes in bright hope, sometimes in angry flames. This first round of conversations has been tremendously fun. For all your listening and your great feedback, thank you. You rock.

Now it’s time to take this project to the next level. We’re going to close the tent flaps a little while we build out the next iteration - a proper podcast and more. A lot of you have asked for it. We’re excited to bring it.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you about what you most need to hear. We’ve set up a short survey. I really hope you’ll give us your feedback.

Your support and encouragement mean the world as we move to build out our next phase.

Stay tuned!

Tom

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Thank you!

the conversations

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“Max Boot: Trump's GOP Must Burn”

Longtime big-voiced conservative columnist Max Boot has had a fiery conversion on the Republican Party that has so long been his home. It’s Donald Trump’s GOP now, he says in his new book “The Corrosion of Conservatism,” and it has to be “burned to the ground” at the polls to save the possibility of a reasonable center-right party in America. And if it’s not? White nationalism and know-nothingism, Max Boot warns, will swamp America.

"Whiteness... is unraveling"

Race and racism are fiery topics yet again in the USA, with a president who seems more than ready to fan the flames. Artist Steven Locke has his own take on our return to raw racism. "Whiteness," he says, "is unraveling" - and therefore at its most dangerous. Facing history he says, can save us all. Locke wants to build a slave auction block memorial in the nation's "Cradle of Liberty," historic Boston.

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"The Next Social Network"

With Salman Habib, entrepreneur, drop-out, and co-founder of the social network HelloFriend. Mark Zuckerberg and Salman Habib both dropped out of Harvard to start social networks. Zuck's network is hitting trouble. Habib's is just revving up. People are calling HelloFriend the Facebook killer. Habib demurs, but he's ready to take social networks to their next chapter - the fusion of social network and blockchain.

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"A Two-Power World"

With Sir John Sawers, former head of MI6, Britain's global spy service. Judi Dench played the role for James Bond. John Sawers sees China at eye-level now with the US. And soon, the bigger player. "It's not as if we have the superior model that will forever keep us in the lead... America has to share its role in the world with China." And this: "Q is a real live person."